The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-16
A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENT.
a Drop OF Water for Eight
Years and Half.
From The London Telegraph,

Rev DR. Dallinger. President OF the Royal
Microscopic Society, recently delivered an
address which gives an example of the adj
mirable and unceasing devotion shown by
our best scientific men After dwelling on
certain recent improvements IN the con-
struction of lenses. the President, on the oc-
caslon referred to, proceeded to describe
series of experiments which he has conduct
Ell for nearly ten faithful and patent years
Long ago Darwin expressed the OPINION
| that if we would actually observe and de
mOnstrate the manner IA which living crea-
| lures adapt themselves. by inward and out
ward notifications. 10 changed clrcumstan-
ceS, and so produce what are called new
| species, it must be 10y watching the lowest
and least visible organisms. To such a task
Or. Dallinger set himself. His project was
to place and keep under his lens several va
rieties of those minute mOnads, which are
necessarily multiplying by tiSsure or divl-
SION and which are nearly at the bottom OF
animated nature The generations OF these
creatures succeed each other about every
| four minutes: so that in the course OF an
! hour ne can view the passage OF fourteen or
! htteen generations which would answer TO
| something like $50 years of human history,
while day of monaiic existence would
/ represent more than 10000 of our years.
| These mOnads live in water. and by connect
! Ing the drop that serves them for hanlta-
! BILE and roomy ocean with the ingenious APP
| paratus of Prot. Schaeter, the temperature
| OF tins drop can be either kept constant or
| raised very slowly, and with absolutely
! steady precision. Here. therefore, We're the
conditions requisite for gradually altering
the climate in which these mOnadS throve;
| and, if it could be proved that such tiny in
! fusOria could indeed be slowly accustomed
! TO changes greater than would be suffered
! by animals removed from the equator to
! the pole, then bright and trustworthy light
would be cast on the notifications of life
which we see arrived at on the earth, and
Darwin's great law would he largely re
moved from theory to recorded fact. To
carry out so very delicate an investigation,
! however, it would have 10 be prolonged for
months, and even years, in order TO initiate
the immense deliberation with which nature
herself accomplisheo every substantial
change in her highest productions Night
and day. winter and summer, the patient
| gaze must be fixed on those mereSt specks of
silvery life which had to be nursed into new
conditions of existence. The slightest acct
dent to the apparatus might in one moment
| render the whole experiment void, and
leave the drop of water as liIeless as these
islands would be if another glacial period
suddenly arrived. The only reward. on the
other hand, for successful and almost incOn-
cry of truth, ana the reinforcement of
Darwin's sublime generalization. But, for
the sake of these, which always satisfy the
noble ardor of science, DR.. Dalinger has
given as many years of his life as was spent
by the Greeks in the siege of Troy, and has
| apparently won a scientific victory, the
value of which is as signal as his ingenuity
| and devotion are admirable.
We will endeavOT very briefly to describe
the method and the outcome OF his most re
markable experiments The group of mi
| crOScOpic mOnadS We're put under the lens
| in well-fitted water cell ut their usual tenn
perature of 40 f. the apartment the appa-
ratus and all around being carefully kept in
precise unison. The doctor then spent the
first four months of his observation inrrais-
ing the temperature time after time by
stages less than one-slxth of "A degree until
his swarm of poto1oa had reached the new
and advanced reading Of 10' F. The change,
nevertheless, had no more disturbed them
than that experienced by a British family
when it migrates To London or Cape Town 4;
the life history OF each group remained I'M
altered they moved gyrated, fed and split
| themselves into new individuals and in Just
the same manner, and within much the
same periods as before. When, however,
three more degrees had been added to the
7O', the mOnadS showed signs of being de-
cidedly inoonvenienred.5 They We're neither
as lively nor productive az formerly; yet,
by keeping them exactly at this range
during two quiet months, they regained
their full vigor, and might be compared tC
emigrants who had become seasoned by sur
viving the first hot spell in tropical coun-
try. They could now standby gradual
steps OF iECrease-the enhanced heat of Is
which was reached at the commencement OF
the twelfth month. Yet here. again, long
pause was found to be necessary: the new
generations of those silver speckS of life un
der the glass were not all alike strong
enough to live and thrive What answers
to Sunstrokes and fever with us had caused
vacant space to appear in the Watel'drop
and it was only when the mOnadS showed
themselves once mora lively and prolific by
a long era of repose that the careful doctor
administered further dose of caloriC Du
ring eight years and half did he thu,
slowly and unweariedly proceed in the same
course, augmenting the heat OF theW sur
rounding element now and then by slow anC
; slight additions pausing afterward fol
months TO give the minute creatures time t.
accommodate themselves when signs were
visible that they were under difficulties, anC
always going forward to new trials of en-
durance when they had recovered In thi.
manner. after all those wears, DR.. Dallingel
brought his small patients TO the astonishing
range of 1873 Fab, at which the latest gen
Grafton appeared las jolly as sand boys.
1t is not possible to say how much farther
their tiny constitution could have beer
trained to defy increasing warmth, because
the research was at this point accidentally
terminated; but it will be seen that the doc
tor had brought the little people of his drop
world to sustain heat nearly 100 highei
than the flourishing point of their ances
tors, and species of which, if taken at tn,
beginning, would have been completely anC
simultaneously killed in water of 140'
! When we have added that these minute sal
amanders persisted directly they were pu
back into their ancestral medium of 50 i
will he manifest that the interchangeable doc
tor had by the magic of science, effected ;
miracle of nature almost as striking as if tn,
protococous navilis which stains the Arcti
snow with crimson, had been TRANSFORMED
into the great grasses and feathery bamboo
which cothe the burning sides of a noun
tain under the equator.